Pharmacy reservation is in conformity with the constitution - finding of the VfGH
Supreme Constitutional Court from 03.03.2021, V 75-76/2019-15 – Pharmacy reservation is in conformity with the constitution.
In the third application to the Constitutional Court by an Austrian drugstore chain to annul the pharmacy proviso on the grounds of interference with freedom of purchase and violation of the principle of equality, the court succeeded in obtaining a substantive decision. However, the application was rejected. As a brief reminder, the content of the first two applications was not processed because they were not formally complete.
In the now substantive execution, the VfGH justifies in over 135 pages why it does not constitute a disproportionate encroachment on the freedom to purchase and does not violate the principle of equality that over-the-counter drugs (with few exceptions) may only be obtained from pharmacies and may only be dispensed by them (also in distance selling). We have always taken the view that pharmacies are justified in the Austrian pharmaceutical supply system.
The VfGH has pronounced that the pharmacy reservation serves several public interests, first and foremost the functioning supply of the population with medicinal products. Pharmacies have numerous obligations in this regard, which also ensure that the purpose of the functioning supply of the population with medicines is ensured.